BEIJING - They may not look anything like one another. They shared no common language. They are ruling at different times in history. But still, I can't help noticing the parallels between current Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and China's venerated former leader Mao Zedong. And with this in mind, I have to wonder why many people in Zimbabwe are unable to see the similarities with what's happening in that country now to what happened to China under Mao's checkered leadership.

When Mao and the CPC rode into power in 1949, it was to the cheers of many, following years of corruption under the Nationalist government and years of civil war. People in China were tired of all the fighting and looked for someone strong to lead. Mao was that guy. Same thing in Zimbabwe in the late 1970's. After taking part in guerilla warfare against the government in power in Zimbabwe at that time, Robert Mugabe emerged as a popular figure and was swept to power in 1980. And like Mao's rule in the first couple of years, many people were pleased with the results. Mao and the CPC managed to reign in corruption and put the breaks on runaway inflation. When Mugabe came to power it was on a platform of reform to help lift the black majority out of poverty. Mugabe was the toast of the town internationally for a time, receiving numerous honorary degrees. Mao too was an international sensation for a good part of his rule, first among the Communist and 3rd world nations, and later, following his decision to normalize relations with the United States, (aka: the West) western aligned leaders beat a path to his door and heaped him with praise and described him often as a benevolent philosopher. But it's not just the positive side of the equation where the two leader's paths run the same course.

Under Mao's insistence, the government at the time launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958, seizing farmland in a tragically misaligned attempt to increase agricultural output. The resulting mismanagement and crackpot economic theories put forward by Mao cost the lives of anywhere between 14 and 43 million people (depending on which stats you use). In Mugabe's case, after the newly formed British government headed by Tony Blair stopped subsidizing white-owned land sales in Zimbabwe in 1997, Mugabe's government eventually passed through a constitutional amendment in 2000 which allowed the seizure of all white-owned lands. The resulting land seizures and subsequent handover to black farmers who had virtually no agricultural experience led Zimbabwe from being known as the "breadbasket of Africa" to the point now where an estimated one third of the population has to rely on international food aid to survive. Yet both Mao and – it appears, thanks to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's recent decision to pull out of the upcoming Presidential runoff – Mugabe are being allowed to survive politically through something that would, and should, have ended both careers. And basically it all boils down to one thing: violence.

When Mao was threatened politically, he used the power of his Cult of Personality to rally the Red Guards to create a Cultural Revolution and maintain his preferred form of government and administrative style. Same thing in Mugabe's case. The United Nations recently condemned the Zimbabwean government for the recent string of violence in that country which has left dozens dead and has essentially stifled any kind of opposition to Mugabe's rule. And like in China's case, it appears not only the respective people in the countries themselves, but the world at large, is again going to tolerate Stalinist-style thug rule.

Geo-political circumstances often dictate what the world will and will not put up with. During Mao's tyranny in the late 60's, there was little appetite (let alone knowledge) to deal with the situation from a global point of view because the world was essentially divided down the Cold War lines. But those days are over. So it begs the question of why the world isn't taking greater action to stop Mugabe's tyranny and save the people of Zimbabwe from having to go through what the people of China did until Mao finally shuffled off the mortal coil in 1976?

The people of China had to put up with economic blunders and relentless political campaigns and purges that cost the lives of tens of millions of people under Mao for 27 years. Unfortunately for the people of Zimbabwe, Mugabe's hold on power is now into year 28. And after Mao went the way of the Dodo, China's leaders eventually came to terms with the wrongs created under the Helmsman and have moved on. Thankfully, for the people of Zimbabwe, the 84-year old Mr. Mugabe is highly unlikely to surpass Kim-il Sung's Marxist-leader-hold-on-power record of 45 years and the people of Zimbabwe will be able to eventually move on. But even if he survives to surpass Stalin's 31 years of tyranny, it will be too long.